Spinnerets for melt-spinning high polymeric substances



y'United States sPINNERETs FOR MEM-SPINNING HIGH PoLYMERIc sUss'rA-Ncns willem rde Wulf, Arnhem, Netherlands, assigda'by" mesne assignments, to American Erika Corporation,v r

Claims priority, application Netherlands I November 23, 1949 1 claim. (cms-s) This invention relates to a process for melt-spinningl high polymeric substances and to the products obtained thereby, as well as to the spinnerets used Vin thelspinning process and to the process for manufacturing these' spinnerets.

One of the principal objects of `the presentinvention* is to provide a new and improved 'mehtod for meltspinning'high polymeric substances. A still further object i 2,839,783 leiesfedklsne24. 15958 .Y 4"lee 1/2 mm. or less from each other. yAs a consequence'itu 'became obvious at a fairly early stage of development i ofthe viscose art to employ spinnerets that were manu;` factred completely from precious or noble metals aind,y alloys thereof Vsuch as platinum, platinum-indium, goldplatinum and gold-palladium. In order to permit the use of cheaper materials, some elorts have been Vmadeinthe past` to manufacture spinnerets for viscose manufacture largely from stainless steel or nickel by, a procedure whereby "percious metal inlays were fitted in the'places where Vthe holes were to be provided.` However, suchv spinnerets could not adequately fulll the requirements in the long run because the insertion of the'preciousmetal I inserts intothe very thin bottom metal of 'the spinnerets at such a short distance from each other was generally attendedwith too manydifculties, anditiwas soon'found that the greatly increased Vcosts of manufacture were not?, compensated for by the value of the material saved. Moreover, it was found that as a consequence of electrofy lytic action due t-o the presence of metal couplesgincreased A. attack of the base metal of the 'spinneret occurred. v v Surprisingly, the present applicant foundtha t, it was possible to employ in high polymermelt-'spinning 'operaof the invention is to provide a method for manufacturtures vof the invention are attained will appearrrnore fully l from the following description thereof, in which reference' is made to typical and preferred procedures linluorder to indicate more fully the nature yof the invention, but lwithout intending to limit the invention thereby.

ln melt-spin`ning high polymeric substances, such" as; superpolyamides (nylon), polyurethanes, polyvinyl corny pounds andv the like, the` pressures to which thehigh polymer melt is subjected on the insidev of the spinneret asit is being forced through the holes of the spinneretl forni the threads or laments are usually very high in view of the relatively high viscostiesof the moltenhigh polymericA materialv undergoing spinning. This pressuregener'ally is of the order of at least 10 atmospheres, and"frequ`entlyf rises as high as 40 and evento 100y atmospheres incertain instances.

In view ofthe solidication'of the high polymeric'subfrv stance as it undergoes cooling upon being squirted throughl the spinneret orifcesinto the air, it is generallyV necessary that the holes of the spinneret be spaced Ja substantial sticking together during the cooling process.

an artificial thread comprising Varather vlarge number of single vfibers is to be spun in this fashion,"the y`bottc'imY the spinneret in which the holes arefpresent maj/gotten@ reach a diameter of about 6 cm. Hor more.

In order to carry out melt-spinning `operations under', the circumstances just mentionedfwherein such higlpfinf` terna] pressures are encountered, it is necessary to'l manu-fV facture the spinnerets from a' particularly strong material. As a rule a special steel is used Afor the spinneret material,

which steel is not only strongb'ut'also,completely resistlv ant to the molten polymeric materials;y 'a'lthoug'hbase metals or alloys other than'steelwhich are also resistant under the circumstances mentioned may also be used.

In the conventional vwet-spinning process lof viscose manufacture, the circumstances prevailingrduring the spinning operation are quite different. The internal pressures in the spinn'erets employed in the viscose process are -in general not higher than afew atmospheres. VMoreover,

they holes in the 'spinneret may be spaced as closely as` tions a principle known broadly in wet-spinnipng,k wherein precious metal inlaysY were inserted in Vbasefn'jletal spin'.-

nerets. This was entirely contrary to any experience inthe art because there was noV reason `to expect that` pre cious metal inlays could give any improvement ,in the rnelt-4 2 spinning process, since of course in such" a process'-:unlj, like the viscose process-the spinneretis notfimmersed l in a corroding bathduring the spinning operation, 4lyloreover, the base metal isrnot attacked by molten polymers, f

and while strong'nitric acid i'sfordinarily employed 'in cleaning these spinnerets, many types Aof. stainless,` s teel,

such as Vila-steel, are known' to be very, well resistant vto such acid. Finally, the fact that thjeeniployment ofpres, .y

sures that may rangeupwardly to as high a's 1,0()"vatmosr- -Y mums..

Moreover, in view of the cost andthe hardness the.

materials required, it isnot possible for practicalfreasons ,n

to manufacture melt-spinning spinnerets entirely of pre- Vcious metals. Y

Thus it is that contrary to what pected by those skilled in the art, accordingyto'y the present invention` it has been found that if in a steel bottomplatel., of a melt-Spinning spinneret inlays of `precious metal are might I have 'been AeX- i.' 7

inserted andthe necessary holes are then punched therein,`

the extrusion yof the molten high polymeric substance,

through the holes thus formed in the preciousmetal inlays"V andthe cold drawing of the resulting fibers lcanrrqui prisingly 4be carried out far better Vand far more easily, I t

has been found that the thickness of the threadsis .far

more even, so that with otherwise the same melt-sp ning," apparatusamuch better quality of yarn is spun, andmore-V portant parts of the process for manufacturingjsuch threads, is found toy take place far moreeasily because substantially less breakage due to breakage of single lilaments occurs. `More-over, the resulting product is far less brous in nature. j

When' employing such a vspinneret in melt-spinningf operations, one many employ the procedureldescribed in the co-pending U. S. application Serial No. 115,773, filed September 14, 1949 by Theodoor Koch (now abandoned).A

It was also found that when using nitric acid of suffi. cient'concentration to clean the spinnerets thuslformedL. f `no attackby electric potential differencesV occurs therein,

over the cold drawing of these spun threads, which opera-,1' tion is known per se and which is one of th'ehimosvtz.,im-`

during the cleaning operation, so that this reason which makes the application of precious metal inlays 1n wetspinning in the long run impossible, is not present here.

Although it is possible to insert the precious metal inl lays in various ways in the base metal spinneret without departing from the spirit and principle of the invention, yet certain particularly preferable embodiments have been found, and these will be described hereinafter with reference to Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawing. Thus, it was found particularly preferable that the thickness of the metal bottom plate of the spinneret be at least 3 mm., while the distance between the centers of the holes in the spinneret should be preferably not less than 3 mm. The holes in the base metal spinneret, in which the gold or other precious metal inlays areV inserted, preferably consist of two parts, the conicity or taper of which can be diierent. In the part lying near the outside face of the spinneret is disposed the precious metal inlay, the length of which is less than one-half the thickness of the metal plate. The conicity or taper of that part of the hole in the base metal plate in which the precious metal has been placed preferably lies between 1 and 6. The conicity or taper of the remainder of the hole is much greater, and may be of the order of 60. The use of stainless steel, for example V4a steel, as the bottom material of the spinneret is preferred.

Referring now Vto the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 shows on an enlarged scale a section of a part of the bottom of a steel spinneret, provided with a precious metal inlay with a spinning hole; and

Figure 2 is a section of the precious metal inlay per se as it is ready to be inserted into the bottom of the steel spinneret, and before it has had the spinning hole punched or drilled therein.

Referring to Figure l, there is shown a portion of a melt-spinning spinneret having a stainless steel bottom plate 1 having a thickness of 5 mm. This spinneret has a plurality of holes 2 punched or otherwise formed therein, of which one is shown in the drawing. On the inside of thespinneret the-diameter 3 3 of this hole is 6.5 mm. The hole consists of two parts of different conicity or taper. 'The part of the conical hole which opens toward the inside of the spinneret has a depth of 3 mm., and is tapered with a conicity of 60 from a diameter of 6.5 mm. at 3 3 to a diameter of 2.7 mm. at 4 4. From 4 4 to the outside 5 5 of the stainless steel plate 1 the hole 2 has a taper of 3 from a diameter of 2.7 mm. at 4 4 to a diameter of 2.5 mm. at 5 5. VAlthough the conicity or taper of these two portions of the hole in the bottom of the spinneret may be diiferent from the values just mentioned, it'has been discovered that for best results as regards the iirm disposition of the precious metal inlay in the bottom plate of therspinneret the conicity of the second part of the hole lying between lli-4 and 5 5 should be restricted and should preferably lie between 1 and 6. When stainless steel is employed as the base metal of the bottom plate 1, a3L7 taper is found to give Very advantageous results.

Thus, the hole in the stainless steel spinneret is characterized in that it consists of two parts, the part lying nearer, the outside face of the spinnerethaving a conicityor taper lying between V1 and 6, preferably 3, and theremaming portion being of substantially greater conicity or taper.

It has been discovered that Vthe precious metal inlay it acquires a cup-shape, as indicated in Figure 2. The

cup-shaped precious metal inlay there shown `consists of a body portion 6 which on one end '7 7 hasan outer diameter of 2.7 mm. and on the other end 3 8 2 diam- 4 eter of 2.5 mm. ln this piece a cup is formed which at the top 9 9 has a diameter of 1.8 mm. and at the bottom 10 1t} a diameter of 0.8 mm., while the thickness of the precious metal at the bottom amounts to 0.45 mm. at the most, and preferably` 10.4() mm. (between the planes 8 8 and 10-10).

By means of a Vsuitable stamp or press this cup-shaped precious metal inlay is now set in the conveniently adapted lower part of the hole 2 previously formed in the steel bottom 1 of the spinneret. After all the holes in Ythe vsteel spinneret bottom have been provided in this manner with inlays having cup-shaped recesses, the spinning holes 11 are then formed in each of those inlays by drilling or one of the other ways known in the viscose rayon industry and, if necessary, the spinneret is polished on the outside. The spinneret is then ready for use in melt-spinning. 1

It has been found that in practice the spinneret made up in this manner is completely resistant to the high pressures occurring during the melt-spinning process and that it gives a product characterized by extraordinarily regular single filaments.

In order to indicate still more fully the nature of the present invention, the following examples of typical procedure are set forth, it being understood that` this description is l'presentedby way of illustration only, and not as limiting the scope of the invention.

Example l Polyamino-caproic amide having an intrinsic viscosity of 0.96 was melted at a temperature of 256 C. in a meltspinning apparatus of a construction known per se. molten polyamide was then forced through a filter and then by means of a measuring pump through a spinneret constructed according to the present invention in which ten precious metal inlays' formed as described above in connection with Figure l, were present. In each of those precious metal inlays there was provided a spinning hole `the mouth of which had a diameter of 250 microns. The precious metal inlays were located in the spinneret in such manner that the ten spinning holes were present on a circle with a diameter of 40 mm.

The quantity of molten polyamide forced through the spinneret amounted to 11 grams per minute. The ten single filaments squirted out from the spinneret were collectively wound as one thread on a rotatingV spool located at a distance of about 5 meters from the spinneret. This spool had a peripheral speed of 600 meters per minute, as a result of which an artificial thread of 165 deniers, consisting of ten single filaments, was formed. This thread was cold-drawn in accordance with conventional cold-drawing practice to a four-fold length having a iinal thickness of 45 deniers. OnV an average only one break occured per kilometers of' thread during this drawing operation.

Furthermore, it appeared from a microscopic examination of the cross-sections of this thread that each single filament had an almost'exactly round cross-section. The differences in diameter of 'the cross-sections of these single filaments visible under the microscope were measured. Practically all the variations lay between 2% and 4%,from the largest diameter with a few exceptions which showed a deviation up to 5%.

In order to show the special advantages of the procedure according to the present invention, attention is iuvited 'to the following comparative example.

Example 2 The The procedure of Example l was repeated with the sole exception that instead of employing a stainless steel spinneret havingprecious metal inlays, a spinneret was employed having a stainless steel bottom plate having no precious inlays but in which the spinning holes were formed directly in the'stainless steel plate. On colddrawing. the threads spun by means of thisspinneret, it

was found that there occurred an average of 20 to 25 breaks per 90 kilometers. Moreover, the microscopic examination carried out in the same way as in Example 1 showed that, although the individual filaments were almost exactly round just as were those in Examplel, the differences in diameter were far larger. Measurements showed differences in diameter that varied practically between 8% and 12%, while a few differences ink diameter as high as 20% were found.

While specific examples of preferred methods and articles embodying the present invention have been recited above, it will be apparent that many changes and modifications may be made in the methods of procedure and in fabricating the articles herein described. It will therefore be understood that the examples cited and the particular methods and procedures set forth are intended to be illustrative only and are not intended to limit the invention.

What is claimed is:

A spinneret for the high pressure melt-spinning of highpolymeric substances comprising a base metal spinneret having holes therein and being provided with noble metal inlays inserted in said. holes inthe base metal bottom plate of the spinneret, said holes including two portions of diierent conicity, the conicity of that portion of the hole that is in direct contact with the noble metal inlay lying between 1 and 6, said base metal being stainless steel and said noble metal being an alloy consisting of gold and 30% platinum.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,337,258 Ohlson Apr. 20, 1 920 1,604,216 Brainin Oct. 26, 1926 1,654,936 Jones Jan. 3, 1928 1,788,660 Colomb Ian. 13, 1931 1,935,821 Simons Nov. 21, 1933 1,967,798 Witte July 24, 1934 1,999,072 Allen Apr. 23, 1935 2,266,363 Graves Dec. 16, 1941 2,273,638 Graves et al Feb. 17, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS 139,646 Austria ---a Nov. 26, 1934 

